Going To The Bahamas, What to take?

[GGamble]

We will be leaving in 10 days for a short (4 months) trip to the Bahamas. We will be in the Exumas and southern Bahama islands. We have never cruised in that area. I know in Nassau you can get most provisions. Whats hard to get? Good Steaks? Fine wine (life's to short to drink cheap wine!)? Looking for ideas?

Thanks in advance!
G

[Dave852]

Take good wine and good steaks. In Nassau you can buy pretty much anything and then not so much until Georgetown.


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[CarstenWL]

... on New Providence / Nassau nothing is hard to get (food wise - guess all you get in the US can be gotten here) but everything is EXTREMELY expensive (at least for our German taste). We are working here now since some weeks and do not have to pay for food but we do the shopping and were really shocked first ;-) ...

- Case of beer $ 67,-
- Gallon Milk $ 8,-
- Bag of apples $ 11,-
- 40 simple white table napkins $ 5,-
- ...

Regards,

Carsten

[geoleo]

[QUOTE=GGamble;1762609]We will be leaving in 10 days for a short (4 months) trip to the Bahamas. We will be in the Exumas and southern Bahama islands. We have never cruised in that area. I know in Nassau you can get most provisions. Whats hard to get? Good Steaks? Fine wine (life's to short to drink cheap wine!)? Looking for ideas?

Thanks in advance! Lots of Money
lots

[Catamoron]

We are cheap and eat cheap so maybe my advise won't help...but we provisioned in Key West and are now in Georgetown having stopped in Bimini, Chub, Rose Island, Nassau, then down the chain to Georgetown. We spent about $1500 before we left on December 30 and are still feeding ourselves on the supply (a family of four adults).
The big thing is drinks - cokes are ridiculous so bring as many cases of beer and cokes that your boat will hold. But we also make our own water - so we brought many single served drink mixes - the peach teas, grapes, orange, etc so we saved a gatorade bottle, fill it and put a single served, zero calorie drink mix it them....or if you prefer use the Mio style mixes - and you can't bring enough of those either.
But also a big expense and light to carry is potato chips - they are expensive here ...and they don't weigh anything to bring..if you want to take up less space, then do the Pringles style..otherwise, bring as many as you can fit.
We also brought about 20 boxes of spaghetti. The small boxes here are around $3 dollars (we got ours at Dollar Tree for a buck.)
We loaded up on Parmesan cheese (like 10 canisters), ketchup (10), mustard (10), etc.....
Cereal is also insane here - whatever you like, buy 20 boxes and take them out of the box and label them.
The one awesome thing we did is bought the 2% milk in the quart boxes - some people don't like them, but we can hardly tell the difference - and we got ours at the Dollar Tree for a dollar apiece - and we bought 70 one quart boxes...and wish we would have bought more. They last for up to 10 months un-refrigerated and milk is $5 a half gallon here.
Bring all the meat you can freeze except pork-chops - its the only thing I've seen here that's reasonable.
Hope this helps...this is our first time sailing so obviously we had never been to the Bahamas or provisioned for it. But if you want to follow our progress from Key West to Georgetown then you should check out my blog at Catchin' Rays or you can watch the videos we've made along the way so far on my youtube channel at www.youtube.com/kevtamus

[GGamble]

LOL, got the money thing covered i think... Great idea on the milk and beer/soda! We have a watermaker so we will probably do the same. Pasta and dry goods. Will do! at those prices it might be better to pop back to Miami to restock every 4 months or so! What about snacks and stuff like that? I'm not a potato chip eater but I like cheese and crackers. Veggies?? just wondering....

[Dave852]

Crackers you bring from the states as well as fine cheese. But when that cheese runs out they do sell some orange cheddar like cheese in bulk that's not bad. Veggies limited till GT where you can find a decent supply once a week. Less the closer you get to summer. All pricey as has been noted.


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[Catamoron]

Veggies only last so long, so you will have to provision here the best you can. In Nassau there is a Fresh Market (that's what its called) at the end of all the "marinas" (if you can call them that) you can anchor "by the green house" you'll see all the other boats anchored..and use I think Brown's Marina and walk over to the Fresh Market - very good grocery store and actually their deli meat was just as cheap (or expensive) as we paid in Key West. There is also everything else in that market area - phone service (BTC), Bed, bath, and Home, pizza hut, sub shop, liquor store, and they have security walking around....maybe the safest place in Nassau.

But if you like something, then bring as many as you can - but its funny, while in Georgetown, we met a girl that said they were soon heading back to Miami to provision....so some people do exactly that.

[onestepcsy37]

As everyone else says, bring most things with you. Everything is more expensive, some a lot more expensive, and some things are simply unavailable at any price. If you've got any 'must haves', like Twinkies (not me!), bring a four months supply. My must have is bran cereal, for reasons we need not discuss here in a family forum, so I bring enough for the duration. We love our fresh veggies, but they are not regularly available and mostly expensive, so that's where we tend to spend our dollars.

And with the imposition of a VAT tax two months ago, there's no telling where the prices will go.

All of the above notwithstanding, it's still worth it. Go and have a great time.

[Tingum]

Good advise from all. Load your boat, then look for more room. Bring any spare parts and filters you may need. The idea about being able to bring in duty free boat parts is becoming a thing of the past. The current government is absolutely nuts about taxing visitors to death, locals as well! Between duty, freight, and VAT everything is at least double what you would pay in the states.

[jwing]

Fresh vegetables are what I most miss in the Bahamas. The best bet is to find out which stores carry them and when the weekly mail boat comes in. Be there when the mail boat gets there or at least be in the store that day. I feel guilty when I buy up most of the fresh vegies that arrive for the week, so I try to make an order ahead of time if I will be in the area for a while.

[jwing]

Good advice on the spare parts above. The Bahamian import tax on parts I had shipped in from the USA were just about the same as the price of the parts. When I received the wrong part, I had to pay the duty on it as well as on the correct part a few weeks later.

[nautical62]

Originally Posted by Tingum

Good advise from all. Load your boat, then look for more room. Bring any spare parts and filters you may need. The idea about being able to bring in duty free boat parts is becoming a thing of the past. The current government is absolutely nuts about taxing visitors to death, locals as well! Between duty, freight, and VAT everything is at least double what you would pay in the states.

+1

People often focus on food stuffs which can be more expensive in the Bahamas, but not having the part you need really bring a cruise to a standstill.

Wine and Beer would be next on my list as they are at least double in the Bahamas. Fresh Veggies are limited in many smaller communities, but you can only carry and keep so many of those.

[bgallinger]

Bring ANYTHING from florida that is packaged...juice, beer, cereal, toilet paper, paper towels, milk, soup, soap and meat if you have a freezer. After you think you've loaded up your boat, run back to the store for more. Provisioning is fine in Nassau and Georgetown, but thats it. Nice wines are available but there are no boxed wines available...just in glass bottles. I hate glass containers on my boat. Surprisingly, fresh fish is really tough to find. Catch your own! Rum is pretty cheap.

[Cheechako]

Yep bring a lot. Things in cardboard packages like cereal should be put in another layer of plastic to avoid tasting bad eventually. Fresh food not avail everywhere so bring some high quality dried meals or canned beef etc. Even though you might never eat that here at home... you will thank yourself eventually for bringing it. Don't forget fishing line and rubber squid. A fresh Mahi or other comes in real handy now and then!